Meet Alexis

I was born at Marian Hospital to a teen mom in a conservative religious family. Growing up, we were very poor. I spent much of my childhood being shipped around the country to stay with family or friends while my mother struggled with addiction and abuse.

No matter how many times I moved, Lompoc has always been my home. The moment I could, I returned to Lompoc with nothing more than two suitcases and the clothes on my back. I lived with a childhood friend and her family, who had come to accept me as part of their family. Betty Brady took me in. I call her Mom.

With a good support team behind me I earned my diploma at Lompoc Adult School. I then attended Allan Hancock for two semesters before receiving a scholarship to attend Elegance International, located in Hollywood. It was America’s first makeup trade school. While in school, I worked at retail makeup counters like Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Sephora. I graduated with a diploma certifying Proficiency in Professional Makeup Artistry and Cosmetic Correction, and soon I had a promising career as a makeup artist working for international makeup brands like Benefit cosmetics and Shiseido Group, training retail counter artists and making sales plans. I also worked as a makeup artist for independent filmmakers in Los Angeles including Melissa Stenger and Mike Shiroma.

In 2017, I took leave from work to support a friend in Lompoc after her grandfather passed away. While I was here, my birth mother also passed. During that time of grief, I experienced the kind of compassion and support that only a close-knit community like Lompoc can offer. When I returned to Los Angeles, I realized my heart was back here in Lompoc. I wanted to come home and be closer to my family. Lompoc is my home.

But coming home meant starting over professionally. I commuted to Santa Barbara every day to work as a retail makeup artist at Sephora. Like so many people in Lompoc, I had to leave town every morning just to make a living. That long commute gave me a real understanding of what it means for Lompoc to function as a bedroom community where too many residents have no other choice than to spend hours on the road.

The weekend before I moved from Los Angeles back to Lompoc, I drove to visit a dear friend in Albuquerque who I had met on Tumblr five years previously. We’d grown close while working on writing projects together online over the years. While I was there, we fell in love. Three years later, Blu Otero finally moved to Lompoc to be with me, and the year after that, we married. We’ve now been married for five years.

A year after I returned to Lompoc, I got sick. I was completely bed bound with a variety of illnesses that took years to diagnose. I still suffer from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and Fibromyalgia, but with a good care team, physical therapy, and medication, I am able to live a normal life. Without my spouse, my friends, and my care team, I would not have found the inner strength needed to overcome everything and get on my feet.

My stressful upbringing taught me not just about the cruelty of the world, but about the kind people who don’t let that cruelty harden them. It takes incredible strength to remain empathetic in a system that seems to reward apathy and violence. With the help of my community I was able to break the cycle that held my family in a choke hold. Now I want to take all the love and support I’ve received and give back.

As an adult, I’ve dedicated myself to supporting my neighbors. I first gave public comment at a city council meeting when Voces Sin Fronteras called upon community members to speak in support of a resolution proclaiming support for the undocumented residents of Lompoc. The day the council cut the mic on folks speaking out against defunding the chamber of commerce was the day I decided to run. When there was a vote on whether to hire an additional librarian for Charlotte’s Web Mobile Library, I organized an event to encourage our community to speak in favor. I worked with the community to put on a Really, Really Free Market, put on a food drive for immigrant families affected by ICE, and held a toy drive in partnership with 805Undocufund that gave 93 toys to kids who needed them most.